ISS Amateur Radio Status: October 17, 2008
By Miles Mann WF1F,
Slow Scan TV Status
MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org
Manned Amateur Radio Experiment
Hello all:
I hope you have been enjoying the Slow Scan TV show from the International Space Station.
Current Status:
ISS has two operational SSTV systems running. This morning The ISS crew used the Laptop version from MarexMG called SpaceCam1 for a few images (October 17, 09:32 UTC). And then later the same day switched over to the Battery powered Kenwood VC-H1 System.
VC-H1:
Since the VC-H1 will only run on batteries, (and it does go through 4 AA batteries in a very short time), Garriott's will only be using the VC-H1 when he is near by to shut it off when ISS goes into the shadow of the Earth.
I do not expect much usage of the VC-H1 after Garriott's mission is over. The VC-H1 was flow as a last-minute back up because of a problem with missing cables for the SpaceCam1 platform and a problem with the existing VOX box.
SpaceCam1:
In August 2006, ISS commander Pavel ran some Slow Scan TV tests from ISS.
http://www.marexmg.org/imagessstv/SpaceCamImages1.htm
During the testing we heard from a few reliable ground stations that the transmitter was getting stuck ON and the radio's watch-dog timer would shutdown the radio after 3 minutes of continuous transmission. We were never able to debug the problem in flight. It was assumed that there was some stray audio or RF that may have been keeping the VOX box in a constant transmit state.
In June this summer a quick decision was made to send a full backup TM-D700 and full set of cables and new VOX Box up to ISS for Garriott's mission on the next available Progress Cargo rocket. Now we have plenty of cables, radios and theoretically two VOX boxes and a VC-H1.
The SpaceCam1 software has been used from ISS several days this past week, including October 12 and 17. We have heard rumors that the transmitter is staying keyed. If this is true, it means we need a better VOX box solution. SpaceCam1 has the ability to be left running 24/7. If we can achieve this goal, we will be able to present SSTV images to everyone around the whole world.
VOX Box Replacement Project:
The Marex team is working on a new project proposal to replace the existing VOX box with an USB Off-the-Shelf version. We have been testing a production version for a few months now with SpaceCam with excellent results. We had tentatively planned on presenting the project at the July Moscow ARISS meeting, however due to cut backs in the meeting schedules there were just too many project and not enough time to work in more project presentations.
If you feel there is a benefit to the amateur radio community to provide 24/7 SSTV down link images, then please support Marex and the VOX Box Replacement Project. Contact your ARISS delegates and ask them too to support Marex SSTV from Space.
Sincerely
Miles Mann WF1F Marexmg.org
ARISS Delegates:
http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arissinf.htm
Slow Scan TV Links and Free SSTV software links.
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/sstvlinkpage.html
The standard downlink of 145.800 will be used for voice contacts, school contacts and SSTV transmissions. Anyone with a FM receiver capable of monitoring the 145.800 MHz downlink can receive audio and SSTV images. The standard voice uplink frequencies of 145.200 for ITU Region 1 (Europe, Africa and Russia) and 144.490 for ITU regions 2 & 3 (N. America, S. America, Southern Asia, Australia) will be used.
Additional info on SSTV operations is available at:
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtouseiss.html
Ground stations are encouraged to capture as many of the transmitted
SSTV images and forward them to the Marex at SSTV at ISSSPACECAM.ORG
After you receive an image, please rename the images using the following
format, (All Lower case letters). All dates and times must be in UTC.
Year 08, Month 10, Day 14, (UTC time), Call sign,
(optional Short text description) .JPG
Example:
0810141905wf1f.jpg
or
0810141905wf1fgreatlakes.jpg
If you are not a licensed amateur operator, just place your initials
after the time (0607311905abc.jpg)
We would also like to know the following information in your email:
Name or Call sign
Country / State
Receiver
Software decoding tool
Elevation or range of ISS when you decoded the image.
The best image received for a given time period will be posted to
http://www.issspacecam.org/
and
www.marexmg.org
Additional information about Richard Garriott's flight and activities are available at:
http://www.richardinspace.com/http://www.challenger.org/http://www.ariss.org/
If you do not have a tracking program, here is a live link to NASA that will show you where ISS is located.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html
Pictures of the Amateur Radio station on the International Space Station.
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/radiohardware.html
Slow Scan TV:
The Marex Slow Scan TV project, SpaceCam1 was activated for a few weeks in August 2006. We hope to see some new images in October 2008
http://www.marexmg.org/imagessstv/SpaceCamImages1.htm
Marexmg Web page
http://www.marexmg.org
73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG
Until we meet again
DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F
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